On The Arduin Adventure box set, The Compleat Arduin, and Basic D&D
I blogged recently about playing in jay_zer0's Arduin Arcade The Howling Tower! Session #2 https://zer0.bearblog.dev/arduin-arcade-session-2-the-howling-tower/ . This has got me thinking/reminiscing about Arduin through my gaming life.
The Arduin Adventure boxed set was designed by David A. Hargrave. I bought it in 1981-3, and it was my introduction to an almost comprehensible basic D&D (I was 11-13 years old).
I never clicked with the (Tom) Moldvay Basic D&D set I had, or the (David) Cook Expert set. (I missed getting the Eric Holmes Set). I liked the Earl Otus' covers though, and the other illustrations. But The Arduin Adventure boxed set had this scene on the front cover of a male human Warrior (I guess), an Amazon, and a Green Phraint fighting a Creature like an Alien from Alien, the movie that caught my attention. <
Box set1> As I flip through the reprint's pages today while writing this, I'm inspired again to game. The interior art was awesome quality (to me), it just tugs at forty year old memories of lying on my Grandma's floor with the boxed set open, and the first three Arduin Grimoires scattered around me.
There were Arduin monster cards, and equipment cards sold separately at that time. I remember I had them all cut out (many I colored in whatever way I was inspired to) and loosely organized into a little, green plastic recipe box my mother found for me at the craft store. I think I had three of the Arduin Dungeon sets that were sold at the time (the selling point for me was the cover art). (I only got a reprint of Death Heart [Arduin Dungeon 4] when I got my Emperor's Choice reprint collection of the Dungeons, as Vaults of the Weaver .) Each set was an adventure book, and one cardstock monster card sheet, and one cardstock treasure sheet.
I loved these items but never gamed with them. I played whatever games I could get in mostly Cape-stuff, and then GURPS for several years. I eventually was so active in other hobbies and social activities that I decided I was done with gaming.
Finally after several years of not gaming I sold all my game books. I only began to re-collect them after a terrible injury, where I mostly interacted socially through games (this was back in the Face to Face days). I remember finding the next piece of Arduin material in the Game store as The Compleat (sic) Arduin: Book one.
The Compleat Arduin was great because it seemed like someone had organized and unified the material of the game into one system (keep reading). Decades later I found out this was largely done by David Hargrave's player Mark Schynert (and a bevy of others) who had revised and edited the material from David Hargrave's notes and writings (some posthumous). A great interview with Mark is here, https://gamingperspectives.podbean.com/e/gaming-perspectives-with-saul-and-jolene-bonus-episode-mark-s-talks-about-arduin/ , it's longish.
The Compleat Arduin was a project that David Hargrave had begun before his death with The Revised Arduin, a primer (available here as a PWYW Document, https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/373198/revised-arduin-a-primer?src=hottest_filtered). It seems that Mark S. made the final push (again along with others) to finish Dave's game in 1992.
The Compleat Arduin is just that a complete game for the World of Arduin. As much as I like it, and ever admire it for that completeness, I'm less drawn to it than the original Arduin Trilogy of Grimoires. It severs Arduin as a rpg from it's OD&D roots (possibly to it's detriment). I have never played a game (even DM jay_zer0's) of solely Arduin Material. I will probably DM/GM a game before I play it (jay_zer0's game's have all the elements of Arduin I could want in all honesty).